Greek Stuffed Peppers
I came across a recipe for Greek Stuffed Peppers in Ellie Krieger’s book, The Food You Crave. I got this out of the library for inspiration and these caught my eye. I, of course, tweaked the original recipe. They’re beautiful – red and green and sprinkled with bright white feta. My iPhone snap above doesn’t do them justice.
Know up front that these need to bake for a while, but the prep time is very short – so at least you can get stuff done while they’re in the oven. Try these for a touch of comfort food, healthied up!
Greek-Style Stuffed Peppers
1 lb. extra-lean ground beef (90% lean or higher, I used 93% lean from Whole Foods) 1 10-oz. pkg. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry 1 medium onion, minced 1/2 c. bulgur 1 large egg, lightly beaten 1/2 t. dried oregano Generous sprinkling of Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste 4 small red bell peppers, cut in half lengthwise, core and ribs removed 1 26.46 oz. box of chopped tomatoes (such as Pomi) 1/2 c. crumbled feta cheese
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the beef, spinach, onion, bulgur, egg, oregano, salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly until combined (hands are best for this!). Arrange the pepper halves cut-side-up in a 9×13-inch baking dish and fill each pepper half with the meat mixture. Pour the tomatoes with their juice over the peppers and sprinkle with the feta. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake until the filling is completely cooked and the peppers are tender, about 45 minutes longer.
These serve 4, generously. Serve them with some orzo (which for L., is a main course) and some steamed broccoli on the side.
A couple of notes. One, rice was always the filler in the stuffed peppers of my youth – so why the switch to bulgur here? Did you know that bulgur has twice the fiber of brown rice? ’Nuf said. Next, I know that the pre-crumbled feta is a draw . . . so convenient, right? Really, though, the flavor is sub-par and let’s be real, how hard is it to crumble cheese? You could even get your kids to do it – L. clamors to crumble!
© 2009, Sarah. All rights reserved.
